Thursday, December 27, 2012

Vintage Singer Machine

How many sewing machines does one person need?
No, I haven't bought another machine yet, but I am interested in one at the local thrift store. It is a 1969 Singer in a small cabinet. The price is very reasonable and the machine looks in very good shape.
Maybe I'll stop by the store later and take another look.

That Singer 237 has Singer's famous Class-15 hook system - vertical oscillating hook. That is the most dependable versatile hook system ever designed. It's been copied more than any other hook system in the world and is still used in Bernina machines that cost several thousand dollars (they also make a vertical rotary for the wider embroidery stitches, but that's another story).

A few things to watch out for - it has a few plastic parts that can crack with age. The plastic spool pin often gets broken, but that's an easy find/fix. The race cover is also plastic so be gentle and kind when you open it to remove the hook for cleaning. But it, too can be replaced with a new one.

The plastic parts that aren't available are the knobs, light and top cover.

Eventually you may want to replace the cheap motor with a new one, but no need to unless the noise drives you crazy. Foot control can also be replaced.

It uses std low shank feet - most popular foot system ever used.

I can't see from the photo, but does it have the feed dog drop knob? Not all 237s have this feature.

And I really like the three position needle feature - only found on the top-of-the-line machines from this era.

Singer sold tens of thousands of these to school districts because it was such a dependable work-horse of a machine - much better than many of the horizontal class-66 machines of this era.

He who hesitates..loses. I went back to the store and it was already gone. It wasn't the $22 that stopped me from buying it, the space did.I live in a 500 square foot house. I decided I'll just have to make room if one comes along again.Thanks for the input.

If it's any solace, when I first started sewing I found one of these in my building's trash WITH the table; I brought it upstairs only to discard it later when I realized it didn't have the pedal. At the time I thought, "I have a sewing machine already, who needs a second?" A very different mindset from my current one!